The present invention relates to methods and devices for distributed audio/video (A/V) synchronization and playback using an A/V orchestrator.
Modern electronic appliances are becoming ubiquitous for personal as well as business use. A/V systems are used in numerous fields of work and a variety of locations. An essential requirement in most A/V use-cases is to ensure that the audio and video transmissions are synchronized to each other in order to avoid different types of synchronization errors such as lip-sync error. However, such a basic requirement of ensuring A/V synchronization becomes challenging in situations in which one is interested in using two or more standalone A/V systems in order to display and play the same content or associated content simultaneously on all of the systems, while keeping audio and video streams fully synchronized.
For instance, such a situation arises if one is interested in displaying a movie on one or more large TV screens while simultaneously and synchronously playing the soundtrack on one or more smartphones. The motivation for splitting the A/V outputs in such a way might be in order to let viewers listen to the movie's soundtrack via headphones or via other peripheral devices connected to their personal smartphones. Alternatively, the purpose of such a system configuration might be to enable viewers to listen to a personalized or language-specific soundtrack via independently-connected headphones rather than to a single, shared soundtrack.
Whatever the reason for such a concerted “display/play” mode might be, in all cases it is crucial to be able to fully synchronize the A/V outputs, such that no lip-sync errors are introduced to any of the standalone A/V systems.
Another example of a need for a concerted display/play-mode A/V system is when one is interested in displaying video content, or several versions of primarily-similar video content, on one or more smartphones or one or more TV displays or monitors, while keeping all video outputs synchronized with a main audio system on which a soundtrack is centrally played.
In all such cases mentioned as well as variants of the above, today's rigid centralized approach to A/V synchronization relies on a tight connection between the A/V systems (i.e., “tight” in the sense that any A/V stream being sent must reach its destination quickly enough in order to maintain A/V synchronization throughout the system) to ensure no synchronization errors occur. This approach would not be suitable, and definitely not optimal, for the demands of most A/V applications and environments mentioned above.
Such a case is similar to a one-man band in which a single player manages the entire synchronization, as opposed to an orchestra in which a large group cooperates together, with each member being responsible for his/her synchronization according to the tempo set by the orchestrator.
In the prior art, Chen et al. (US Patent Publication No. 2012/0042047) recites a method for synchronizing and triggering an initial playback event by sending a single, scheduled event command.
It would be desirable to have methods and devices for distributed A/V synchronization and playback using an A/V orchestrator. Such methods and devices would, inter alia, overcome the various limitations mentioned above.